[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 133 (Friday, August 1, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5187-S5188]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                 Unanimous Consent Agreement--H.R. 3944

  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I am about to propound a unanimous 
consent request that will allow this body to proceed with three 
appropriations bills that were approved by the Senate Appropriations 
Committee with overwhelming bipartisan support.
  I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule XXII, and at a time 
to be determined by the majority leader, in consultation with the 
Democratic leader, the Senate resume consideration of Calendar No. 121, 
H.R. 3944, and the committee-reported substitute amendment be 
withdrawn; that during the consideration of H.R. 3944, the Collins 
substitute amendment, No. 3411, which is the Military Construction and 
Veterans Affairs appropriations bill and the Agriculture appropriations 
bill, be considered an Appropriations Committee amendment for purposes 
of rule XVI, with no other rule XVI points of order waived by this 
agreement; that H.R. 3944, as engrossed by the House of Representatives 
on June 25, 2025, and H.R. 4121, as reported by the House 
Appropriations Committee on June 25, 2025, serve as the basis for 
defense of germaneness under rule XVI for any floor amendments and that 
it be in order for floor amendments to amend the substitute in more 
than one place; that the following managers' package of amendments be 
considered and agreed to en bloc to No. 3411: The Paul amendment No. 
3070, Shaheen-Grassley No. 3430, Smith No. 3025, Hirono No. 3409, 
Rounds No. 3081, Rounds No. 3082, Budd-Shaheen No. 3416, Hawley No. 
3080, Rosen-Cortez Masto No. 3208, Cornyn No. 3073, Hirono No. 3110, 
Shaheen No. 3431, Klobuchar No. 3418, Crapo-Rosen No. 3163, Blumenthal 
No. 3433, Booker-Tuberville No. 3200, Moran No. 3190, Crapo-Merkley No. 
3220; and that upon adoption of the managers' package, the only 
amendments in order be the following amendments, if offered, to No. 
3411; that at a time to be determined by the majority leader, in 
consultation with the Democratic leader, the Senate vote in relation to 
these amendments: No. 1, Merkley amendment No. 3114, Blumenthal No. 
3432, Murphy No. 3447, Van Hollen No. 3115, Duckworth No. 3466, 
Tuberville No. 3413, Kennedy No. 3414, Kennedy No. 3415, Scott No. 
3113, Johnson No. 3428; further, upon disposition of the amendments 
listed above, the Senate vote on adoption of the substitute amendment 
No. 3411, as amended, with a 60-affirmative vote threshold required for 
adoption; that the bill as amended, if amended, be read a third time 
and the Senate vote on passage of the bill, as amended, if amended, 
with a 60-vote affirmative threshold required for passage; finally, 
notwithstanding passage of H.R. 3944, as amended, if amended, it be in 
order to consider amendment No. 3412, this is the Legislative Branch 
appropriations text; the Senate vote on adoption of amendment No. 3412, 
and if adopted, H.R. 3944 be further amended and the motion to 
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no 
intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that, where 
applicable, the amendments be called up as modified to reflect that 
they are drafted to the substitute amendment No. 3411.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I further ask unanimous consent that 
there be 2 minutes of debate equally divided prior to each vote in 
relation to H.R. 3944.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I just want to thank our colleagues on 
both sides of the aisle. It has taken a great deal of work, good faith, 
and negotiation to get to this point.
  I particularly want to thank the vice chair of the Appropriations 
Committee, Senator Murray, for her leadership in this area. I want to 
thank all of these subcommittee leaders on both sides of the aisle and 
the members of the subcommittee for really doing an exceptional job in 
drafting the bills that I hope we will pass and send on to the House 
for negotiation in conference.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I am so glad that we are moving on our 
first appropriations package of fiscal year 2026. It is a package of 
bipartisan funding bills that invest in our communities and reject 
damaging cuts from Trump and House Republicans.
  I want to acknowledge the chair, my partner, Senator from Maine, who 
has worked really hard to get these bills to this point. And I 
appreciate the tremendous amount of effort she and the subcommittee 
chairs have put into this, as well as our ranking members.
  If you think like I do that we cannot have another slush fund CR that 
gives away more power to Trump; and if you think like I do that we need 
to reject a budget that was so plainly written by political appointees 
who do not care or know what our States need, instead make the 
investments we all know are best for the people we represent, then let 
me be clear: Bills like this are the best chance we have to get the 
best outcome for folks back home.
  In this package, we fully fund the WIC program and reject Trump's 
efforts to eliminate international food aid programs, rural housing 
support, and food boxes that feed hundreds of thousands of seniors. We 
reject Trump's call to cut FDA funding by hundreds of millions and 
slash ag research funding for universities across the country. And we 
make investments to support our servicemembers and their families and 
to keep our promises to veterans--funding VA healthcare, fighting for 
veteran homelessness, and more.
  Crucially, we don't just have investments in this bill, but also new 
provisions to hold this and any administration accountable to deliver 
for our veterans--requiring VA maintains staffing levels to meet their 
own goals so we can stop the damage being caused by Trump's mass firing 
of our VA workers; requiring briefings and information so Congress--all 
of us--can actually get answers on how Trump's new discriminatory 
policies are affecting our veterans; and withholding some funding until 
Congress knows these programs are actually working, like for the 
Electronic Health Record program, where some research will be held 
until VA certifies new systems are safe and are effective for our 
veterans.
  In addition to this package, we will vote on a Leg Branch bill that 
rejects Trump's efforts to gut the Government Accountability Office; 
invests in the Congressional Budget Office and the Congressional 
Research Service to keep government accountable to laws and facts; and 
in security for the Capitol and for our Members, something I know 
everyone here is concerned about.
  We have written these bills under challenging circumstances. Russ 
Vought is illegally hiding the apportionments data we all need to have 
to do our jobs. And we all recognize he has been illegally blocking 
funding we all passed for our communities, at least until the courts 
step in or public pressure forces his hand.
  If you are as mad as I am about an unelected bureaucrat like Russ 
Vought trying to overrule Congress and our constitutional role, you 
should support these bills.
  This is--this is--how we exercise the power of the purse and make 
sure the voices of our constituents are heard

[[Page S5188]]

when it comes to Federal spending. We know his true motivations; it is 
pretty transparent. He wants Congress to be more partisan--he has said 
so--and less powerful. They want to gut programs left and right without 
giving us any say whatsoever.
  So I believe we have to reject that path and assert our authority and 
fight for our communities. We will do that today by passing this 
bipartisan funding package and pushing ahead with the other bipartisan 
bills we have in the pipeline as well.
  The bills we are moving today show bipartisan work is possible. And 
the cuts we were able to reject and investments we were able to secure 
show this to all of us: This is worthwhile.
  I hope all of my colleagues join with me in voting for these bills 
and work with me to keep this progress going.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.